Customs: Millions of illegal medicines
stopped by "MEDI-FAKE" action

The European Commission has announced today the
results of the "MEDI-FAKE" action, which targeted customs control on illegal
medicines entering the EU. On the basis of a risk profile disseminated by the
Commission, customs from the 27 Member States put special focus over a two month
period on coordinated action to stop illegal medicines from entering the
European Union. Among the products which were intercepted were antibiotics,
anti-cancer, anti-malaria and anti-cholesterol medicines, as well as
painkillers, Viagra and drug precursors. This first EU coordinated action had
tremendous results, with more than 34 million illegal medicines seized. It also
highlighted a number of ways of improving the fight against trafficking in
illegal, dangerous or counterfeit goods. It paves the way for future similar
actions.

László Kovács, Commissioner for Taxation and Customs, said:
"In a two month period, Customs seized more than 34 million illegal pills, far
exceeding expectations. This success shows the value of the new Community
approach to risk management. It multiplies the effectiveness of customs
controls, thereby better protecting citizens and legitimate business from new
and increasing security and safety threats. Co-operation between customs and
legitimate business proved vital."

Community risk profile applied throughout Europe

The Commission, Member States' customs experts and pharmaceutical specialists
met and identified key risk indicators and high risk pharmaceuticals to be the
subject of reinforced controls. These were transformed into an agreed common
risk profile to target high risk traffic at all points of the external border
controls.

The risk profile, together with updated information and results of the
controls carried out, was communicated through the Community Risk Management
System (CRMS), managed by the Commission. This ensures systematic, real-time
exchange of information necessary to achieve equivalent and effective controls
at the frontier. The effectiveness of the profile is continuously reinforced by
new risk information obtained from immediate feedback.

The effective elements of the profile will continue to be used by Member
States in the coming period.

The MEDI-FAKE action has highlighted areas where improvements can be made in
the fight against imports of illegal, dangerous or counterfeit goods. It makes
it evident that increasing cooperation with industry is very important.

The success of this exercise has opened the door for future similar actions
in other areas where specific technical knowledge is required.

Historic seizure levels, new type of medicines stopped

Exceptional results have been achieved in many Member States, most notably
Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. The range and number of illegal
medicines stopped far exceeds any previous results.

The 34 million tablets seized included major seizures as:

Customs at Brussels airport registered the biggest seizure of illegal
medicines ever recorded in Europe: 2.200.000 counterfeit medicine tablets were
seized, of which 1.600.000 were painkillers and 600.000 were anti malaria pills.

Security and safety threats cannot be countered by short operations but
require consistent and targeted controls at all points of the Community at all
times.

In 2005, the Community Customs legislation was amended to provide Customs
with new tools to tackle the growing threat to security and safety posed by
dangerous goods.

This MEDI-FAKE action is the first Priority Control Action to be implemented
under the Customs Risk management Framework (see IP/06/1821)
which introduced a better risk information sharing mechanism and set uniform
Community risk-selection criteria for controls, supported by computerised
systems.